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1. Two-year-old crushed to death by a TV. Her mother’s plea: “If it gets your child in the wrong spot it can be lethal.”
Megan Cammilleri’s daughter Jasmine was a climber. She liked getting into things and on top of them, just like any adventurous two-year-old.
She says that Jasmine had started climbing on the television cabinet a couple of months before the fatal accident that killed her but she never imagined it was a problem as the 94cm (37-inch) TV was so heavy.
In February 2013 Jasmine was playing near the TV in their Perth home. Her mother has described how she left the room for a moment to send an email and make a phone call when she heard a scream and a loud thump when she rushed back to the room, there her daughter Jasmine was lying on her back, unresponsive, with the TV lying on top of the two-year-old.
The ABC reports that an inquest into Jasmine’s death has found that the TV was not attached to the wall as the family did not realise it was necessary.
Mrs Cammilleri said that she bought the TV with part of the baby bonus the family received after the birth of Jasmine.
She was informed at the time that there “brackets” for the television but she thought it “sounded just like aesthetics”.
“We just thought ‘we’ll do it later’,” she said.
“It wasn’t of concern or a problem.”
Her daughter was breathing but unresponsive when she found her, she was rushed to hospital but died soon after.
Top Comments
This might be a very stupid question, but I have no young children in my life--is the recommendation that all TVs be stored in brackets? Or only of certain sizes?
Some television sets are actually made to hang on the wall+some have stable legs to stand, but they come with instructions for users! What you must do is use your judgement in each individual case.
I feel very sorry that the child died but really, pinning the blame on the sales assistant is absurd. The TV comes with a manual for a reason. The mother and father or other guardians were negligent, they kept putting off mounting the TV although they knew they should. It's a hard thing to take responsibility for but you cannot live your life shifting blame.
Agreed, they know it was they themselves who should have fitted the strap or brackets, they read the instructions but “We just thought ‘we’ll do it later’," then they allowed their 2 year old to climb on the TV cabinet for TWO months and still failed to fit the safety strap or brackets the were told and read about......you can lead a horse to water comes to mind
Agreed. We live in a culture where we blame the other guy. Take some responsibility people. They were entirely negligent!
This is a prime example of blame shifting because the parents cannot or will not accept responsibility for negligence. Plain+simple. I do feel sorry for them however unless they accept that they needed to stop the child climbing+secure the TV so it did not fall over, they will never learn to prevent this occurring again!l